It may not seem like it but working in the medical field is not easy, exciting or even well paying. It is a necessity in life because people are not healthy. I cannot say as they used to be because people certainly do live longer than the generations before us but the downside to this is that there are so many more illnesses around that were not diagnosed as such many, many years ago, so medicine has managed them as chronic illnesses. This mean that you can have a condition until you become very old and die from it eventually. I don't look to be appreciated, really I don't but at times it just bothers me somewhat that people just see others such as myself as measly medical office workers. These people have not a clue as to what all goes into doing this. Pre-certifications or approvals may not look like much to some, but it is important. If a test or medical procedure is not approved then an insurance company may not pay, as medical necessity must be determined. Pre-certifications are generally a way to provide medical information about a patient to determine if such a test is necessary. If it is determined that a test is necessary the patient will be approved, if not then the test will be denied. This process helps insurance companies control the costs of paying money for tests that patients or physicians may want but do not necessarily need. When a physician orders a test the medical front desk office worker then becomes overutilized as a result of obtaining precert or inquiry of for a test; that may be approved or denied because it is determined as not medically necessary. There are several questions that are asked during the pre-certification process and this involves looking at the patient medical history to answer the question, you also need a diagnosis or more than one that is appropriate for the test and a CPT for the type of test and sometimes there is more than one of those. The information is provided to the utilization management company or precert department is reviewed and an answer can be provided the same day or it may take a few days depending on the type of test being ordered. This can consume lots of time especially if you work in an office that is not only internal medicine but a specialty medical office also. Physician's really do not realize what goes into doing this. We live in a time where we manage costs and to prevent fraudulent or unnecessary procedures from being done which not only exploits the patient but, becomes a placebo of work for a physician. If a test is unnecessary, the physician is not attempting to diagnose a symptom or condition, relevant to such test being ordered because there is no basis for the patient to have a particular test. There has to be a way to have people who work as freelance pre-certification workers so that they can eliminate the front desk from being that office or department. I feel like the whole f------ store! Anyways, this is a lot of work in addition to everything else. I'm hoping some start-up company will create a website or portal whereby physicians or front desk workers can upload documents and include, diagnosis ICD and procedure CPT to order a test for pre-certification. That information including patient, physician information hospital or facility ect., is then obtained by the freelance pre-certification worker who will contact the precert department or utilization management company to obtain precert. If it is approved the approval gets sent to the ordering physicians office, if it is denied then the ordering physician must be contacted if they want to do a peer to peer for reconsideration or if they want to order another type of test. The medical office worker-check the aisles-what are these people worth?

Yes, it's almost that time of year again. As we wait and cringe for the increased rates regarding health insurance to be finalized. It does bother me that in a country that is supposed to be so democratic that a dictatorship was imposed concerning the type of health insurance one could purchase. If you are over the age of 30, the catastrophic option was not available. Yes, this bothers me. In the old days many people often just purchased hospital insurance if they were not privy to the perks of decent employment along with health insurance and other benefits. Hospital insurance covered just that and anything you would go to a hospital for. This way you would not have to sell body parts to pay for the hospital bill once you were finally released from the hospital. Hospital insurance was relatively inexpensive and it was or really could only be used in the event of an emergency. The new laws that are imposed prevent people over 30 from buying this type of insurance. Thus, making a person who considers themselves to be of decent health to pay a lot more money for full insurance along with high deductibles that usually occur if someone is hospitalized. Think of all of the excess payout that occurs as a result that people who make only a certain amount a year or those that are in the doughnut hole like myself. The problem becomes that you make too much to qualify for Medicaid and earn way too little to afford the hundreds of dollars an insurance company wants each month. The dictatorship in all wisdom has decidedly not included this in all of their configurations of health insurance solutions. So, I say that this health insurance is a dictatorship because it subjects those people to troll along and purchase insurance as expensive as it is and still be under the condition of the high deductible. Even with the offset of assistance the government provides the health insurance is still quite expensive. I say close the doughnut hole for all of those people who earn too much for Medicaid but still cannot afford to pay for regular health insurance. How are these rates determine anyway? If you look at a situation and say ok this person earns slightly more to qualify for Medicaid, so they pay $20 or so a month. Well heck this person "Me" makes way too little to pay for health insurance and I pay about $330 a month. My question is that the difference between $23,000 a year and $27,000. Arguably its a $4,000 difference but the doughnut hole between Medicaid and the $20 dollar a month plan was the difference between $14,000 a year and $23,000 which is a $9,000 difference. So why does the added $4,000 difference in a situation of someone in the $27,000 salary which amounts to $13,000 in total in the difference to qualify for Medicaid make for an increase of $330 monthly in insurance premiums for a decent plan, which has a deductible approximately of $2,500? There is something wrong here and the dictatorship is just that. This is not the balance insurance that people should be using. The doughnut hole should be removed so that balance insurance premiums should be effective for everyone who has to pay for their entire insurance premium. If it took $9,000 to create an insurance premium of $20 (salary difference between $14,000 and $23,000), then the added $4,000 should be enough to create a health insurance premium of perhaps $25 a month (salary difference between $14,000 and $27,000) or paying into an essential plan. This is what I call balance insurance premiums in a democratic society, if this country continues to neglect the use of single payer and free healthcare for all.

What is it? Perioral Dermatitis is a facial rash or one that develops around the mouth. It can make a person appear that they,"out there" and got something as a result. The rash can look even worse when someone uses anything in attempts to rid themselves of the rash and they end up with the sores on their skin as a result. The rash itself tends to spread as it becomes inflammatory and liquid filled bumps appear. When the skin becomes irritated and oily the fungus or bacteria on the skin causes the skin to break out in pimples filled with liquid or pus. Perioral dermatitis spreads when you use anything on the skin or area such as lotion, grease, oil ect, because this helps the yeast overgrow on the skin and develop new bumps. This becomes awful as you try and cleanse the skin with antiseptics to dry it out and to no avail the skin may peel and rid itself of the bumps on your face and then within a few moments new ones appear. You then begin to fear that after many years of having "good skin", your skin is now showing it's color by giving you dermatitis. Home remedies fail to work and then you realize that you may now have to find a dermatologist who accepts your insurance. Perioral dermatitis becomes a downer and it bothers you that people look at you as if you are doing something else to make a buck. High deductibles which means you have health insurance you cannot afford to use, and a skin condition that requires the help of a physician do not exactly make your day. But you then decide to try another remedy. Malassezia fungi or yeasts are lipiddependent fungi, the overproduction of the yeast is what ultimately creates a fungus, bacteria on the skin that causes the inflammation of bumps that need medication to remove the dermatitis. This is why when the weather is hot and the skin becomes oily a person can become susceptible to dermatitis. The problem becomes how can one rid the skin of the overproduction malassezia yeast that has now produced a fungus that constantly appears on the skin? A remedy that may be useful is by taking vinegar, activated charcoal and black seed and mixing these together to form a paste around the mouth. Vinegar is an astringent so it will clean pores of the skin and help with infection, activated charcoal is a product that has the ability to absorb the yeast, bacteria or fungus and neutralize them so that they can be removed from the skin, black seed helps the skin because it is anti-fungal and anti-bacterial. You need to leave the paste or mixture on your skin for a while. Please- this is only a remedy that was used with much improvement-this is not medical advice or intended to be used as. Anyways, after watching all of your usual hour long shows- as you appear in "black face" or "be black on black", its time to remove the paste from your face. You just wash it off with soap and water. Now you will still feel the bumps on your skin as sores around the bumps will develop since the vinegar has cleansed the pores and the activated charcoal and black seed have neutralized the fungus to stop it from spreading and developing new bumps. In a few days you will notice that your skin is not filled with pus like bumps in certain areas and this makes you happy and has made your day since you did not have to use your health insurance and then pay money for steroids or antibiotics that may have an affect on your body and cause a dermatitis relapse.

Patients often have medical exams or tests such as x-rays, ultrasounds, cardiac testing and many more. There are also situations when a test is not done by your primary or specialist physician and you may need to make an appointment to discuss the results. This is bothersome because you only want the results and not have to sit and wait an hour or so and pay money to do this. You then begin to wonder if the results are at all serious because the physician or technologist doing the test did not tell you anything regarding your results. So you decide to make a person to person visit to your physicians office to see if they have your results. The problem is that your physician is not in and you get the front desk who seems like they are being exploited the the customer service area. Finally you get your results amidst all of the time it took for you to have the test done and waiting for someone to talk with you about your results. You then think to yourself that there has to be an improvement of sorts in the medical environment even if this involves technology to bridge a gap between patient and physician. A normal test indicates just that. But a patient should not have to wait days or weeks and become a mad person for such a test result. You think it's way for physicians to make easy money by discussing results that don't involve the intricacies of abnormal tests that usually involve other procedures, surgery and visits to other specialists. Then of course there is the "Why wasn't I notified sooner?" Don't take this personal but were you really looking for a physician or a punching bag to blame your F----d up health on? Think about it and perhaps you will find the solution as to why you seem front desk bound. Anyways, regarding test results and getting them as soon as they are available from a hospital or facility. A patient should be able to automatically access his or her exam results from a facility or hospital website. Many places already offer this and it would prevent the amount of time trying to contact your physician and getting one to speak with you. It would also help in expediting other problems you have, as in if you have symptoms that are worse or you feel you need to see someone else, if you have those results upon speaking with your physician you can provide that information to them or another specialist. Electronic access should be required. This informs the patient immediately and of course the physician will be informed also.

Autophagy in the human body is a process in which the body detoxify's and removes harmful substances and toxins from it. Autophagy helps the body repair and regenerate itself and it contributes to slowing down the aging process. Free radicals are responsible for the aging process and if your body is not in the habit of detoxifying and removing harmful substances then your mitochondria cells will create cancer cells and other types of genetic mutations prone to disease. This is because mitochondria makes reactive oxygen species in detoxifying the body and in eating the right foods and supplements this can help the body make more mitochondria. When the body releases electrons as free radicals, the mitochondria and DNA becomes damaged. In all, autophagy is meant to help the body from aging too rapidly. Autophagy, like many other words in the vocabulary of English is actually a Greek word that means "self", "phagein" or "to eat". Autophagy provides the nutrients necessary for energy and creation of new cells. Strangely enough cancer cells function the same way. Cancer cells can function in a way to increase their production of diseased cells including hypoxia and metastasis. Microorganisms from the mouth and gums can cause diseases of the mouth, they can also cause systemic diseases such as in the brain. This occurs since oral or mouth diseases or their microorganisms are able to spread epithelial to other areas of the body. Trigeminal neuralgia can be caused by pain in the mouth and gums since the trigeminal nerve carry sensation from the face to the brain. This means that it may be possible for diseases of the gums to spread to the brain and thus developing brain disease and neurological problems due to DNA changes of cancer cells as they begin in the mouth and spread to the brain(intracerebral metastasis) from the lymphatic system. Autophagy-detoxes the mind and the body!